Sit back quietly for a moment and think: what truly determines your daily actions—billionaires, or the constant struggle between time and money? From the time you woke up this morning until this very moment, what has determined your actions?
We often say in our tea stall chats or social media debates that billionaires like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg are influencing our lives. They are creating algorithms, analyzing our data, and in a way, buying our thoughts. These words are not entirely false. But if you dig a little deeper and analyze this with logic and emotion, you will realize that the real truth is somewhat different.
From a worldly or earthly perspective, it is not any human being, but rather two things that most influence our daily decisions—Time and Money. Ultimate control is, of course, in the hands of the Almighty Creator, but in this world, He has given us these two things as a great testing ground and medium.
Let’s try to understand this psychology through a deep analysis.
The Fallacy of Billionaire Control (The Illusion of Control)
Yes, it is true that tech giants influence our screen time. Their algorithms largely determine what you see on YouTube or Facebook. But can they make the final decisions of your life? No.
Elon Musk or Bill Gates are actually just parts of a massive worldly system. They themselves are trapped within that very same system, known as capitalism. They, too, are bound by the framework of time, just like us. They can definitely capture our attention, but they are never the core driving force of our existence.
Time: An Inevitable and Neutral Reality (The Inevitable Reality)
One of the greatest blessings and neutral elements given by Allah in this world is time. It waits for no one.
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Time has no bias: The richest person in the world has 24 hours a day, and the same 24 hours are allotted to a helpless person sleeping on the street. No one can bribe time to extend it or hold it back.
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The timeline of life: When we go to school, when we build a career, and when we grow old—everything is bound within the inevitable frame of time.
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Fear and urgency: “I’m getting older, yet I haven’t been able to achieve anything”—did any billionaire instill this fear in our minds? No. The limitation of time gives us this urgency. The reality that time is running out fast is what forces us to make important life decisions.
Money or Wealth: The Earthly Medium of Survival (The Worldly Catalyst)
We all think we are free. But in our worldly life, the extent of our freedom is largely determined by our financial condition. Money is merely a ‘tool’ or medium of life. But we often foolishly chase blindly after money. Earning money is not foolish at all; rather, being blinded by the obsession with money is the real foolishness.
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Limitation of choices: What you eat for lunch, where you go for a vacation, or what kind of medical treatment you receive when you fall ill—in a worldly sense, much of this depends on the money in your pocket. Although we believe that the ultimate healing and the decree of sustenance (Rizq) lie solely in the hands of the Creator.
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The modern form of slavery: We work 8-10 hours a day in an office or business. Why? Because at the end of the month, we need those paper notes or digital numbers. Money forces us to do many things that we might not want to do from the bottom of our hearts.
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Social respect: Who the current society respects and who it despises largely depends on wealth. This social logic forces us to chase after money. However, it is an eternal truth that a person’s good behavior and character (Akhlaq) bring them true respect, rather than money.
The Strange Maze of Time and Money (The Matrix of Time & Money)
The biggest tragedy of human life is this contrasting relationship between time and money.
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Phase One: In our youth, we have endless time and energy, but no money. So, we spend our time and labor (through jobs or business) to earn money.
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Phase Two: As we age and money starts coming in, we realize that much of our life’s time has slipped away. Then, we try to buy time with money (such as hiring people to make work easier or arranging faster transportation).
This lifelong trade-off or transaction between time and money is the real matrix of our earthly life. But we must remember that their value is entirely limited. There is no opportunity to chase after time and money for eternity; one day, we will have to leave all this behind and set off for our final destination.
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So, What is the Way to Freedom? (Conclusion)
We cannot eliminate either time or money from our earthly life. Human civilization would come to a halt without them. But what we can do is free ourselves from the enslavement of their illusion.
How?
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Mindfulness: Earning money through Halal (permissible) means is necessary, but you need to understand the meaning of the word ‘Enough’—how much money is sufficient for you. You must develop a mindset of contentment with less.
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Proper valuation of time: You must stop wasting time on things that add no value or virtue to your life in this world or the hereafter (Akhirah). You should engage yourself in good and positive deeds.
At the end of the day, if you learn to balance the use of time and money with emotional intelligence and logic, only then will you be able to beautifully organize the tasks of your worldly life. And that is when it will be possible to achieve the true purpose of this invaluable life given by the Creator.